One might think this is nothing more than a 1930s girlie book with an anatomically implausible cover, but, if you look very carefully, it’s just possible to see a small NRA logo on the right-hand side of the page. Part of the First New Deal, the NRA was a Federal Agency that gave the Roosevelt Administration the power to develop voluntary agreements on work hours, pay rates, and price fixing. The NRA, symbolized by the Blue Eagle (a stylized thunderbird) was popular with workers. Businesses that supported the NRA put the symbol in their shop windows and on their packages. That the Blue Eagle should be featured on the back-then equivalent of soft porn is an odd but telling confirmation of the trust and loyalty that FDR enjoyed among the American workers during the New Deal. Oh that Barak Obama could manage the same.
On November 6th, 2008, two days after the American people directed Barack to the White House, the tabloid LA CityBeat published my cover-story love-letter to the new President Elect, in which I likened him jokingly to Superman, but unequivocally demanded that he counter the corrupt collapse of free-market capitalism with massive, FDR-style public works and job creation. It was maybe an arrogant demand for a writer of gothic novels and one-time rock & roller, but I did have Nobel Laureate economist Paul Krugman at my back.
As I write this now, moving into the end of the first six months of the Obama administration, I see very little of either what I hoped for, or was tacitly promised during the campaign. LA CityBeat is history. Some 6000 writers are out of work and most without prospects.
My TV is a clogged artery of bickering politicians, with Obama under fire from both a dangerously insane GOP and turncoat, bought-and-paid-for Dems. We are being shown no awe-inspiring public works, no valiant and visible job creation, or any clear and present hope being offered to the unemployed and evicted. Layoffs continue, unions are sacrificed for the survival of corporations, and zombie banks dare to declare profits while putting the screws to their customers. Peace is nowhere near the horizon. Healthcare likewise. Obama is amused by the idea of legal, revenue-bearing marijuana, and any minor moves in the direction of a new socialism are tentative and apologetic.
Last Friday Bill Maher brought progressive dissatisfaction with the current state of Barack-Knows-Best into the open with a comedy bit that instructed those who accuse Obama of being a Marxist to realize that he’s “not even a liberal”, and explained how the Democrats were the new Republicans. “Shouldn’t there be one party that unambiguously supports cutting the military budget, a party that is straight up in favor of gun control, gay marriage, higher taxes on the rich, universal health care, legalizing pot, and steep direct taxing of polluters?”
I’m still not saying that Barack Obama isn’t astute and talented, but he may not be The One for whom we all worked so hard. Maybe we believed too hard just to get rid of McCain-Palin. Barack may still turn out to be a creditable head of state, but he is looking less and less like the Superman who could ease us through what may ultimately be the collapse of capitalism. I fear many of us will have to face reality and start making our own demands. As loudly as is needed.
On November 6th, 2008, two days after the American people directed Barack to the White House, the tabloid LA CityBeat published my cover-story love-letter to the new President Elect, in which I likened him jokingly to Superman, but unequivocally demanded that he counter the corrupt collapse of free-market capitalism with massive, FDR-style public works and job creation. It was maybe an arrogant demand for a writer of gothic novels and one-time rock & roller, but I did have Nobel Laureate economist Paul Krugman at my back.
As I write this now, moving into the end of the first six months of the Obama administration, I see very little of either what I hoped for, or was tacitly promised during the campaign. LA CityBeat is history. Some 6000 writers are out of work and most without prospects.
My TV is a clogged artery of bickering politicians, with Obama under fire from both a dangerously insane GOP and turncoat, bought-and-paid-for Dems. We are being shown no awe-inspiring public works, no valiant and visible job creation, or any clear and present hope being offered to the unemployed and evicted. Layoffs continue, unions are sacrificed for the survival of corporations, and zombie banks dare to declare profits while putting the screws to their customers. Peace is nowhere near the horizon. Healthcare likewise. Obama is amused by the idea of legal, revenue-bearing marijuana, and any minor moves in the direction of a new socialism are tentative and apologetic.
Last Friday Bill Maher brought progressive dissatisfaction with the current state of Barack-Knows-Best into the open with a comedy bit that instructed those who accuse Obama of being a Marxist to realize that he’s “not even a liberal”, and explained how the Democrats were the new Republicans. “Shouldn’t there be one party that unambiguously supports cutting the military budget, a party that is straight up in favor of gun control, gay marriage, higher taxes on the rich, universal health care, legalizing pot, and steep direct taxing of polluters?”
I’m still not saying that Barack Obama isn’t astute and talented, but he may not be The One for whom we all worked so hard. Maybe we believed too hard just to get rid of McCain-Palin. Barack may still turn out to be a creditable head of state, but he is looking less and less like the Superman who could ease us through what may ultimately be the collapse of capitalism. I fear many of us will have to face reality and start making our own demands. As loudly as is needed.
The secret word is Tarnished
He's a politician, Mick. You don't get to be a front-runner party candidate unless you've been vetted as a safe pair of hands.
ReplyDeleteThe choice of party, as usual, is really equivalent to "Would you like a Strawberry or Vanilla president with your government, Sir?"
It's exactly the same back here in blighty, except they're a bit madder.
Before Obama got elected, a few of my friends and I told everyone we knew that (1) Obama was going to win and (2) Obama would be a continuation of the Bush/Corporate policies.
ReplyDeleteNo one believed us. But it only made sense. Obama received more corporate money than anyone - from the very same powers that previously provided their teet to Bush.
Now people are rapidly catching up. But to blame Obama for our woes is ludicrous. He's no leader. He's just a salaryman obeying the snapping fingers of the lords of industry. He's the bartender in Get Carter ordered to bring a thin glass. (For you Michael Caine fans out there... :)
No, the blame falls on us. We expected real change from an entrenched corporate party. Oh please.
Real counterculture isn't anyone who, as Tumble points out has been determined a "safe pair of hands." After Obama, we can no longer for Dems/GOP ever again. Never. No Dems. No GOP. You can never vote for 'em again. They're all "safe."
Because "Safe" to who? The Corporations? Sure, sure. Obama and the rest are safe to Goldman Sachs. But Obama and the rest are the opposite of safe to We, The People. In fact, they're downright dangerous.
If we as a nation don't become a real counterculture and take back our country, it's over. Everything.
And the time to sit back and throw our hands up in pathetic defeat is long gone. No longer can we anemically say, "well, that's just how it's always been." And further, it's time to stop looking for a "Daddy" to fix everything for us and time for that change to start - with and by us.
Spread the word.
What disturbs me the most, in contrast to the saviour of the world image, is occasionally hearing from his mouth the same kind of Alqaeda paranoia gibberish we were hearing from the previous administration.
ReplyDeleteAnd I find it highly disturbing all the show-biz glitter around the man, namely his appearances on entertainment TV shows and all the Hollywood ass licking. It's just too much marketing and image-selling for someone who should actually be pretty busy with other things.
And, until now, that's all there seems to be, an image.
Though to be fair, Bush was sold *only* as an image. He was the tough-talkin' Texas wrangler (er, who went to Yale in Connecticut) who most Americans voted for because they said, "they'd like to grab a beer with him.".
ReplyDeleteIf only our own job interviews were that easy...
Media support is not limited to Obama. If the media had been even 25% honest on Bush, it's be Nixon/All The President's Men times 100.
No, I think the real answers are to stop looking for a colossal top-down movement to be the solution and to stop supporting corps who are bad for America. And to start building our own local communites to strengthen our daily lives.
All right, I've been on this soapbox enough for one day...
For sure, every president has been sold as an image. Remember Clinton and his saxophone? Really fresh and young. It's been an endless parade of hopeful holograms.
ReplyDeleteThe marketing techniques just get more and more sharp and effective. Even more so when the communication channels are widened by the internet.
This is not contradicting what you said, Matt. I totally agree with you. I wasn't providing an answer in the previous post, was only mentioning some elements that disturb me.
Working in smaller power basis like local communities is indeed the answer. It seems to be the only human solution to this whole mass politics scam.
"An endless parade of hopeful holograms." So awsome! That's spot-on, Mark. I may steal that... ;)
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMay I suggest an exercise? Contemplate, for a few minutes, the possibility that "Republicans" and "Democrats" are just a "Good Cop/Bad Cop" scam for the purpose of maintaining a dysfuncsional status quo that's only keeping its nose above above water by standing on the crumbling tip-toes of its clay feet and see if all this doesn't suddenly make a horrible kind of sense.
ReplyDeletewell, i never thought he was a savior, and i CERTAINLY never considered him a liberal. (bill maher gets points for saying THAT? wow, expectations really have been lowered.) but i did think he would be a relief of sorts. so, while i'm not as disappointed as you are, mick, i'm still disgusted.
ReplyDelete'Meet the new boss, same as the old boss' - Townshend 1971
ReplyDeleteI really have to split here & ask... what the fuck is the problem?
ReplyDeleteMaybe its just that I've been dealing with finishing up math as my worst subject for the last 2 quarters. I'm not even going to try to act like I've been up to date or following the news.
So really, what is it that he's done [or hasn't done] that is so fucking terrible?
Link me, post a comment, email me, send a message on facebook, whatever it takes to explain the outrage because I just don't understand the issue at hand.
That's the point - he's not going to do anything fucking terrible, he's going to keep singing the same lullaby so that what's happening in Terhan doesn't happen in Washington. Whoever's really running that show was bright enough to let things cool out after the power-grab of the Bush phase - but don't expect anything more than minor cosmetic improvements.The freedoms you've lost are gone for ever.
ReplyDeleteThe only freedom I've ever known is in my mind. There's no frontier free of empirical rule imposing law and policy upon a population... as far as you go you can only get so far away. The instant you start to think you're free, you're living in an illusion.
ReplyDeleteNothing is true & everything is permitted.
I'm not so sure to think that we'll only see minor cosmetic improvements. What of health care reform? We have yet to see anything, and perhaps the world will end before we do, I don't know... but I think it’s too early to pass judgment and claim that there'll be no form of progress.
I think the Tehran comparison is quite the stretch as well... I'm not seeing anything to have us so upset or outraged as that population.
That's one of the saddest posts I've ever read.
ReplyDeleteAnd the perfect example of the post-industrial America's "human capital" whose critical thinking was long squashed through Outcome Based Education run by the Department Labor and their corporate overlords.
Never be free? Don't you believe it.
The counter culture will always be free.
A counter-culture can't be free if it is confined by such a title, it is bound & limited by the description... it is dependant upon that which it presents opposition to in order to exist.
ReplyDeleteBelieve what you want, though don't tell me what to believe. I say freedom is an illusion, held fast like a blind faith by those afraid to seek truth. The physical limitations and boundaries experienced by all living beings that must face an inevitable death is exhibition enough of my point.
Unless every living being is of one mind, the individuality of various creatures' will is going to interfere with the supposed freedom of others. One who should wish to limit another's freedom to do them harm may have the best of intentions, though still seeks to place boundaries upon free choice. How can one be free if they are subject to the will of another, let alone the currently uncontrollable forces of nature?
I wasn't refering to quite such a Platonic concept of freedom - I was thinking more of simple, everyday freedoms we used to have - like not being tasered if you didn't do what exactly what a cop barked at you before the words were out of his mouth...little things like that. Sure, freedom is a concept and all concepts are relative but I do miss the what little we had and fear for the even less that remains.
ReplyDeleteDon't worship The Beast(Satan). Voting can change very little because Satan and His Demon cohorts
ReplyDeletecontrol the world. Refuse to go to war because we're only sacrificing our lives to demons. Seek God's Kingdom. Jesus is king in the heavens and is waiting for Almighty Jehovah God (his father) to send him down with an angelic army to destroy the wicked and take over the affairs of the world. Satan and co will be abyssed. Jehovah will soon put it into the hearts of leaders to eliminate world organised false religions, but he will protect his true servants when The Beast attacks!
Yeah, I heard something about that...but actually I just slipped back to mention that I stand by my Washington/Terhan line. True I was waxing poetic but I do figure four more years of draconian bullshit would have lit the fuse - and I would suggest that whoever's running the show had the same thought since not only did they stick a hypnotist in the Oval Office but arranged an economic crisis as a back-up. Okay - so I'm cynical...
ReplyDeleteStand by the comment & be as you are. The comparison made more sense & I got the full context with that support post & a reread of the 1st. For some reason I didn't think it was in reference to that last presidency, looking now its too obvious.
ReplyDeleteI still have to say that I think its just too soon to say that Obama can't initiate any real progress or that the improvements will only be minor & superficial.
Maybe I'm just naive, I don't know, but I suppose I'll learn as time moves on. Unless he manages to get caught eating a baby & has to resign or ends up being kicked out of office, we're stuck with him for roughly 3 & 1/2 years...
Here's hoping things don't go as bad as they could.
jesus lads lighten up,it could be a lot worse.
ReplyDeleteOr...instead repeating that it could be worse or continuing to fetishize Obama or willfully ignoring the larger discussion of who controls him and us...
ReplyDelete...we can choose to think small.
We can choose to be active Americans in our local communities who build our direct economies rather than join the entrenched top-down Republican-Democrat-Corporate collusion (no matter who their symbolic savior/figurehead is at any given moment).
And we will actually make everything better. Much better. It's all up to us.
Let's raise our heads and see beyond where the media tells us to look. Perhaps the real view is spectacular.
It's a bit like riding a motorcycle. You go where you look.
Faux Smoke, I like you. You debate in a civilized and intelligent manner and keep an open mind.
ReplyDeleteI also hope you're right. Nobody would be more pleased than I if it turns things aren't as bad as I think.
I'm more or less with Matt on the "who controls him" part. I've had serious doubts about the autonomy of the individual in that office since Reagan - the idea of a senile hack-actor hooked up to a teleprompter actually making decisions stretched my credibilty to the snap point and I found it hard to believe Bush was more than a puppet.
My take on this is way to complex to try to put in a comment but I feel I should mention it does NOT include Masons, Merovinians, or the Illuminati.
Short version is that I think we're outgrowing the currant social system and those who in positions of power in it are using that power to keep that from happening.
Yup. That's it. The systems are changing. 2012 may be the apocalypse after all...but less Mad Max and more the end of the out-dated nation state.
ReplyDeleteCurrently it's a battle for those entites Roldo hints of who are above the nation-state (aka multinational corporations) to try to quash a resurgence of local economic power thru a resurgence of communities.
It's essentially a battle between the consolidated few who desire corporate fiefdom versus us, the masses and vast majority, who can bring back local democracies.
I tend to picture something more basic behind the curtain of the multinational corporation but since there's no precise way to know who pulling what it basically comes down to doing as little of what they want you to as suits your personality.
ReplyDeleteMy problem with democracy is that if the masses can be properly programmed, its the best tool a tyrant could ever wet-dream for.
One might even suspect that as a reason for outlaw/Underground artists finding so few gigs.
Economic crucifiction does seem the currant method-of-choice.
hah! wv is 'exesse'
"propaganda is to a democracy
ReplyDeletewhat violence is to fascism."
NChomsky
WV: amful
AMFUL EXESSE!!
ReplyDeleteRight on Noam!!
ReplyDeleteAnd while we're on the subject. might I recommend a quick scroll down to the post "The Locked Doors Of Perception" (5/26/09) which I feel deserved more attention than it was given.
ReplyDeleteIt's time we learn how to eat dirt,so we can all live in the United States,because pretty soon that's all we will have.
ReplyDeleteAlso: after watching President Obama talking about the "other country's people" protesting the elections,why aren't we doing the same thing?
Things aren't moving quicker in this country like we had hoped. I'm afraid things might get worse.
I'm wondering how long we will be eating the dirt?
I'd better stop there.
I wasn't going to comment but then I noticed that the word verification is EXAME
ReplyDeleteRoldo to Garage 66-
ReplyDeleteNot being American I did wonder why you folks didn't get a bit more riled at the original Bush "I won - now shut up and go shopping" affair.
Its also at least interesting to watch the local media-droids currantly condemning the violence of Iranian cops when the memeory is still fresh of their previous coverage of Apec, Seattle, Montreal, and especially Genoa, where a protester did get shot and killed.
and the wv is 'putinhol'!!
And also...
ReplyDeleteFrom where I'm sitting, full-lotused and glassy eyed as it may seem, it looks like capitalism collapsed ( or more likely was deflated) some time back, having served its purpose and what Obama's been hired to do is keep folks distracted while new and more horrible replacement is instigated that everyone will accept as a cure for the "economic crisis".
I really did try to like the guy -honest! but all my instincts over-rode my efforts.
I promise to shut up as soon as I add, as fairness requires, that Obama may actually want to Do Good (to the extent he can and according to his idea of good) but forces more powerful will still make the decisions - in other words I'll grant he may be not a villain but a dupe. But even if he IS the ultimate power on the planet he still won't be making the world into anything that I'll consider an improvement.
ReplyDeleteand the wv is (hah) "hyperif"